Press : Annie Lewandowski

Reviews of Powerdove's 'Machination':

On humpback whales:

"Hawaiian Humpback Whales: Scientific and Creative Perspectives," The Whale Listening Project, Cornell University,
September 24, 2021

"Project Celebrates the Beauty of Humpback Whale Song", Cornell Chronicle, September 2021

Profiled in the Boston Globe feature "Meet the ‘rope broker’ who cleans up the Cape’s seafloor and supplies artists with
the salvaged goods"

Interview with Theresa Wong on Recordedness

MAX virtual forum "The Interspecies Quest" with Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries Lucia Pietroiusti
and code artist and collaborator Kyle McDonald, moderated by interactive artist Ashley Lewis.

Reviews of Powerdove's 'Bitter Banquet':

"...the two pianists and two percussionists of Yarn/Wire have solicited dozens of new works from rigorists modernists and
freethinking outliers alike. On successive nights during their Stone residency, the players collaborate with the saxophone-and-
percussion duo Popebama, reinvent works by Katherine Young and Annie Lewandowski (both of who appear as performers),
and present a substantial premiere by Travis Laplante." - Steve Smith, The New Yorker, February 4, 2019

"When we first encountered Bitter Banquet we were struck by its bold, hypnotic beauty... All of the elements - voice,
movement, music, projections - are so seamlessly integrated...the effect is a stunning hybrid of ancient ritual and modern
music video...Opera and music lovers will not want to miss this." - Patricia Buckley and Leslie Noble, Broadway World, 2018

Reviews of Powerdove's 'War Shapes':

"Annie Lewandowski – composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist – has been writing and performing under her
Powerdove alias since late 2007. It started as a solo venture, but John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Thomas Bonvalet of
L’ocelle Mare added their creative flair starting with her third record, Do You Burn?. They have now released a number of
dazzling records and last year’s War Shapes brilliantly straddled the worlds of free improvisation and frazzle, art-pop.
Annie may describe her music as 'eclectic-folk' but it’s always something more – sometimes beautiful, sometimes jarring,
but always transcendental."- BBC Radio 3's Late Junction at End of the Road, 2018

"A priestess of joyfully incongruous musical experiments, Annie Lewandowski, also known as Powerdove, composed
her fourth album, War Shapes, in the company of unorthodox musicians Chad Popple and Thomas Bonvalet. If she
could, Annie Lewandowski might extricate onomatopoeia directly from our mouths so she could store them in her sound
archives to be chopped up and reshaped into future, ingenious compositions…" - Jérémy Piette, Libération, 2017

"Powerdove est le véhicule des chansons étranges d'Annie Lewandowski, pianiste et accordéoniste américaine rompue
aux sciences les plus avancées de l'improvisation. Diplomée et récompensée pour cela, elle s'inscrit dans un champ de
la musique contemporaine qu'on aime voir contaminer la pop. C'es tout l'enjeu de Powerdove, trio dont la formation, les
méthodes et le son évoluent avec le temps sans que l'identité du projet s'en trouve chamboulée…" - Vincent Théval, Magic, 2017

Reviews of Powerdove's 'Arrest':

"On their third album, this trio stir up a thick, unclassifiable brew of contrasts. Through 11 taut tracks they reference
the classical avant garde, 1970s prog folk, free improvisation and 1980s post-punk – there’s even an Arthur Russell
cover. But the references are more internalised than explicit, and the tight arrangements never fail to surprise. They
set the straight vocals of Annie Lewandowski against a churning, mostly acoustic backdrop of piano, accordion,
guitar, dobro and Thomas Bonvalet’s deep bag of assorted noise-making devices. When the arrangements turn more
song-like it’s even more bracing, with crisp melodies standing out against tart, off-kilter rhythms. But the focus is not
instrumental timbre per se, because they reach for, and achieve, a rich emotional texture." - Matthew Wuethrich, The Wire 2014

"Don’t look for emotion in this woman’s voice — but don’t think that means you can walk away unmoved. For
Lewandowski, virtuosity, or showy technique, “is not where the musical nourishment is.” Rather, it lies in sophisticated,
sub-basement rhythms and a wiry tension. It’s in the eaves and rafters of vacant sonic space; the charmingly
Midwestern straightness of Lewandowski’s delivery; and in the clanging, rushing din of unlikely tools." - Kate Crane, OZY, 2015

"Lewandowski’s skeletal vocals nestled amidst house-of-cards instrumental arrangements point to a future where
improvisers might be able to bridge the gap between our present thirst for novel timbres and our past predilection for
narrative-driven songs." - Jonathan Pfeffer, WXPN, 2015

I Care if You Listen Interview

"Powerdove’s vision of folk and experimentation proves to commune with their listener through arresting attacks and
precious compositions. Arrest is a well-rounded album that leads the listener to its conclusion through methods both
intuitive and confrontational." - Nicholas Zettel, Decoder 2015

"…the delicate arrangements of noises that compose Powerdove's new album do not sound like laborious
deconstructions but are rather self-evident manifestations drawn out of secret arcades connected to the most
ancestral lineage of American music."The Drone, voted 'Best of 2014'

"Powerdove renews its vocabulary and hones its grammar. The new features create a nice surprise while the album is
driven by the subtle machinery of what makes their style so distinctive: an uprooted folk music that is simultaneously
tense and tender, savant and simple, bitter and melancholy." -Voted Best of 2014 by Indie Rock Mag

"...they’ve picked up where they left off. From the burst into violent life in a reedy, rattling tangle on ‘When You’re Near’,
to the cover of Arthur Russell’s ‘You Can Make Me Feel Bad,’ and the streamers-round-a-maypole whir of ‘Paper Tiger’..."
The Quietus 2014

"After listening several times to Arrest, the temptation is to quote John Cage: 'I have never heard any sound without
loving it.' Arrest is a cabinet of curiosity gathering old musical boxes, defective metronomes and the most original
instruments... Only Annie Lewandowski's poetic and earthly voice remains an unfailing Ariadne's thread in the maze of
this unique music." - dMute

"The atmosphere is natural, fresh, and subtle… Music as a musical manifesto of the wealth of difference." - Chronique Musicale

"Annie Lewandowski's fifth album (after the volcanic "Do you burn?") continues to convey the impression of a music
oscillating between gentle madness and mutant avant-garde." - Longuer D'ondes

"Avant-garde but genuine and sincere, intimate. It intrigues and enchants." - Chronic'art

Reviews of 'Powerdove Solo at Ranieri Chapel':

"Annie, God, love, chapels, and guitar... the goddess with light feet. The live sound is like penetrating the impenetrable
voice of the Lord." - The Drone

Reviews of Powerdove's 'Do You Burn?':

"A bright, detailed recording and fully committed performances result in an exhilarating album, zinging with empty space
and surprises..." -Clive Bell, The Wire 2013

"On this hypnotic, haunting disc the ethereal song of Powerdove takes flight through a haze of electronic sonorities
(provided by John Dieterich) and percussive disturbances (Thomas Bonvalet) evoking desire both thwarted and fulfilled.
These plaints and poems of loneliness and connectedness, memory and forgetting seem to wing directly from the
unconscious—archetypal, lovely, unsettling." -David Yearsley, Counterpunch 2014

"Do You Burn? sees Annie Lewandowski at her brilliant best, crafting an album of such understated beauty its mysterious
spell will linger for a long, long time to come."- Craig Carry, Fractured Air 2013

"Do You Burn? may deploy bucolic imagery but, thanks to the imaginative playing and the intimacy of the recording, it
rarely feels serene..."- David McKenna, The Quietus 2013

"Although the album barely surpasses half an hour in duration, it cradles countless more of unraveling in its bosom. There
is a sheen to its contours that speaks of the dawn as experience’s signature: not an admission of love but a love of
admission." -Tyran Grillo, Between Sound and Space 2013

"Annie Lewandowski's voice is a thing of great beauty and great terror. A stunning tenor under the weight of something
dreadful and awe-inspiring. " - Tome to the Weather Machine 2013

French Review by Olivier Lamm in The Drone

Powerdove Cornell Cinema Concert Review

Review of 'From the Garden City' with Caroline Kraabel:

"Lewandowski plays everything on the piano but the keys, and the fearless duo dare each other to make the smallest
gestures count in captivating, near silent dialogues..." - Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times 2010

Reviews of 'Cistern' with Doublends Vert (Tom Swafford, Adam Diller, Lewandowski):

"At times it soars and uplifts and at others it haunts you... surely the sign of a good album. Possibly one of the most
accessible releases so far on Line and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Recommended? You bet. With knobs on."
- Smallfish UK

"It's a most powerful recording, even when it doesn't sound noise related. It's a beautiful disc of sustaining sounds, slowly
bent music. If your christmas wallet calls for just one of these four new 12k/LINE CDs, I'd say go for this one. It's a most
pleasant surprise." - Vital Weekly